A Dog's Love
by Nemoa
Summary: A fateful encounter when she needed it the most leaves Higurashi Kagome in the care of Sohma Shigure. Soon becoming aware of the Sohmas curse, she gives it her all to show her gratitude – but soon she begins to realize maybe she isn't doing it out of simply "gratitude".
1. Prologue

**A Dog's Love**

_A fateful encounter when she needed it the most leaves Higurashi Kagome in the care of Sohma Shigure. Soon becoming aware of the Sohmas' curse, she gives it her all to show her gratitude – but soon she begins to realize maybe she isn't doing it out of simply "gratitude"._

_Prologue_

"Please! Only one more month, and then I'll have the money needed!" Higurashi Kagome begged as she gripped the telephone in her hands. "I know this month has been tough and that I'm late with the bills, but-!"

"Higurashi-san. We had a deal; either pay the bills before the year is over, or move out." The voice on the other end sounded kind and reassuring, but there was no warmth behind it. Professional. "I'm terribly sorry, but after New Year you have to move out."

Kagome hiccuped as tears began to form. "Please... it's my home."

"I hope you have a good New Year," the banker said, ignoring her words. After a pause he added, "I'm sorry."

The other end clicked as he hung up. Kagome stood there, phone in hand and trembling terribly.

Outside dark clouds moved closer.

-ooo-

"A~ah," Sohma Shigure sighed as he trudged on his way home. The New Years Banquette at the Sohma's estate had been as every other year; the whole family of Sohma gathering together, the annual dance, this year performed by Momiji.

In other words, it had been the same as every other year, and thus boring. Hadn't it been for Ayame and Hatori he would probably have had to associate with Akito himself for the whole week. He shivered at the thought. Akito may be 'God', but he was one hell of a scary one.

Yuki and Kyo hadn't even come this year, instead staying at home with Tohru-kun. The lucky scoundrels.

Shigure smiled. Maybe he only had himself to blame – after all he had pretty much pushed them back to her, though it hadn't required much to get them to turn tail.

Mah, no matter! Now it was over and he could return home, where little Tohru-kun would greet him with a wonderful meal and-

He paused. Somewhere he could hear someone crying. Looking left he noticed a long alleyway that seemed to lead to several apartment-complexes. The crying was coming from further down the street.

Should he go there and check? But then, maybe it was just false alarm and it was simply a child? Maybe he should just be on his way...

Shigure took a step away from the alley, but as the sobbing continued he groaned and rubbed his forehead.

"Hello?" he shouted, tentatively walking down the alley as he looked left and right at the gates he passed. "Excuse me?"

Damn, maybe it had just been the wind. Shigure looked around and sniffed the air delicately – the curse of the dog could come in handy sometimes, he had to admit. Ah, but the pain of never being able to hug a girl from outside the zodiak was painful!

"Moshi-moshi?" he called again. There! A light scent, human, and speckled with salt...

A woman!

His heart soared as he traipsed to where he could scent the female.

Shigure had a silly grin on his face as he found her, a petite little thing sitting on the porch to a modest looking building, but it soon fell as the little woman shook and sobbed.

_I'm such a bad person,_ he sighed. "Excuse me, lady?"

She tensed at the sound of his voice. "Y-yes?" she mumbled into the fabric of her dark-green shirt.

Shigure tilted his head at her. "Um, are you alright? I heard you crying so..." He trailed off as he took in two large bags beside her.

The woman sniffled and lifted her head to look at him.

His heart stopped for a moment.

Royal-blue eyes, tinted with red either from lack of sleep or from crying, gazed at him through thick lashes. A little button nose and a delicate-looking mouth that was turned down in a sad frown. She looked like she was in her late teens or in her early twenties, but with her dark hair worn in a messy bun and bruises under her eyes she managed to look older.

Shigure swallowed thickly.

"I'm sorry," the woman said, rubbed her eyes and smiled wanly at Shigure. "But I'm fine."

Shigure shook his head and crouched down in front of her. He smiled kindly and tilted his head. "Forgive me, but that was a _li~e_," Shigure sing-sang as he flicked her nose.

The woman blinked and then tears began to fall again. She shook and sobbed. "I-I'm sorry, what am I..?" She sniffled and tried to rub the tears away, but new ones just kept falling. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Something in Shigure gave a painful twist, urging him to do something. If he could he would have hugged her, and not only because she was such a cute little thing, but because she seemed like she desperately needed a hug right that moment.

With a sigh he sufficed with gently patting her head. "What happened?" He asked quietly.

She sobbed again and looked into his warm eyes.

-ooo-

_I can't believe I just told my sad story to a complete stranger_. Kagome twiddled her fingers as she sat there on the porch. Beside her sat the man – Sohma Shigure, he had said – and was looking up at the darkening sky.

"So, Higurashi-san. You've been thrown out and have nowhere to go? What about your family then – shouldn't your parents help you with this?"

Kagome shook her head and rubbed the corner of her eye. "Mom and my little brother live in Tokyo, at my childhoodhome. I'm studying here to become a veterinarian, and since I found a decent job early on I promised her I would take care of everything.

"But then, I got fired, bills started piling up and now..." Kagome sniffed again. What would her mother say? And Ouji-san, Kami bless his soul, he would have been so sad and disappointed...

Sohma-san hummed beside her. "Hooh. Well, I would really like to help you, Higurashi-san, but I don't know that many places that hire people right now."

Kagome gasped and turned toward him. "You mustn't! You have done more than enough, listening to me ramble about my problems. Really, it was very kind of you." She smiled then. "Thank you for listening, Sohma-san."

He held up a hand and smiled goofily. "No, no, Higurashi-san, call me Shigure. Being called Sohma-san makes me sound... old."

Unexpectedly she laughed. "Then, Shigure-san, you have to call me Kagome!"

"Ka-go-me-chan!" He hummed and his grin widened as he caught the sudden blush on Kagome's cheeks.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while and Kagome mulled over the man sitting by her side. He was such a kind man to have listened to her and comforted her when she cried. And, she had to admit, she hadn't really noticed it at first, but Shigure-san was a handsome man; dark eyes, a strong, masculine chin and hair that looked as soft as fur. Her fingers itched with the need to drag her hands through it.

_What are you thinking?!_ She screeched in her mind and shook her head. Her cheeks were burning.

"I have it!" Shigure-san's outburst was so sudden that Kagome jumped, heart in her throat. Shigure-san turned to her, stars practically glittering in his eyes. "How about you move in with me, Kagome-san?"

She froze. He waited, head tilted to the side. Kagome struggled against her sudden lame tongue. "Eh?"

His eyes widened and Kagome noticed a slight pink sheen take form on the bridge of his nose. "Ah-! That- that wasn't how I meant it! You see, I live with two of my cousins and another girl that also needed somewhere to live, so it wouldn't just be only the two of us!" He sighed dramatically. "Though I wouldn't mind that," he continued and leaned closer to her, eyes narrowing and his lips turning into a sly smirk, "Kagome-chan."

Kagome stared at him and from the look in Shigure's eyes he was getting unsure as the quietness drew out. He looked back up at the sky and let out a sigh. "You don't have to – it was only a suggestion."

Kagome shook her head and grabbed hold of his elbow. "Do you mean it, Shigure-san? Can I live with you? At least, until I have found a job and can find another apartment?"

Her heart was thudding and she felt her cheeks heat up. Shigure seemed like such a nice man and so far he had only flirted with her for fun, no real seriousness behind it. And if it meant that she could have somewhere to live..!

"Un, Kagome-san," he said. "If you want it, that-"

"Yes! Oh, kami, thank you so much!" Without much thought behind the action, she jumped him.

-ooo-

Shigure managed to think two things. One, he was being hugged by the cute girl and he felt quite happy. This thought was quickly followed by that he, cursed with being turned into a dog every time a person of the opposite sex hugged him, was getting hugged by said opposite sex.

On instinct he tried moving away at the last second, but it was too late as the soft feminine body was already on his. He closed his eyes tightly and waited for the scream of horror.

But nothing happened; not even the customary little puff of smoke whenever anyone from the zodiac transformed was heard. Shigure opened his eyes slowly, looking down at the dark crown of Kagome-san's head snuggled against his chest.

If anything, he felt a little warmer.

And a lot more confused.

"Kagome... san?" He asked tentatively. Why hadn't he transformed yet?

The girl gasped and pushed away from him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that!" She gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her head, further messing up her hair-bun.

He sat, dumbfounded, and looked at the girl as her cheeks reddened more and she looked at him with a smile in her eyes. Shigure smiled back.

"Ne, ne, can't we hug some more?" he asked playfully and reached out for her. "I don't nearly get enough love to last me a life time, can't you be an angel and bestow some upon me?"

Kagome-san immediately backed up, the red now spreading down her neck. Shigure found himself curious as to how far that red color could go.

"No! Pervert!" she screeched, though she had a smile on her lips.

If only she knew how right she were...

* * *

I know, I know! Another one! And there's another just poking at me, wanting to be uploaded as well, and there there's all of the other's that I need to update! *hides under bed and peeks at reader* Forgive me!


	2. A New Home

**I don't own Fruits Basket or InuYasha.**

**Thanks to Fairy Demon26 for correcting me on some misspellings in this chapter!**

* * *

"I'm home!" Honda Tohru chirped as she stepped over the threshold to Sohma Shigure's house. Taking off her shoes and placing them neatly to the side she walked to the dining room, poking her head inside.

Shigure-san sat by the low table with a cup of tea in hand and smiled at Tohru. "Welcome home, Tohru-kun!"

Tohru smiled brightly and moved to enter the kitchen, when she noticed that said kitchen was already occupied. Curious she went in and looked the person over.

From what she could see it was a woman, with long black hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. She had rosy and slightly pouty lips. Tohru was surprised that the woman was as tall, if not shorter, than she was.

Currently the woman was washing dishes that Tohru had meant to do when she came home, and she felt an instant of embarrasment and guilt to have a guest do it.

Tohru gasped quietly and held a hand to her mouth. Could this be one of the zodiac members? Sohma-kun had told her that, except for Kagura-chan, there was two other females in the zodiac.

"U-um?" she began, stammering nervously. The woman stopped in her movements and turned, looking Tohru straight in the eye.

The teenager let out a loud gasp this time as she saw the woman's eyes; a beautiful deep-blue that seemed to be filled with warmth and promise of comfort, but they were clouded with old pain and sadness. Tohru's heart lurched at the sight.

"Ah!" the woman exclaimed, reached for a towel and dried her hands. "You must be Honda Tohru-chan." She smiled and bowed lightly. "Nice to meet you. I'm Higurashi Kagome and I'm going to live here for a while."

Tohru began to smile. She wasn't a Sohma so she probably wasn't one of the zodiac. "Nice to- What? Live here?!" She froze, staring at Higurashi-san with a dumbfounded expression. Oh no – what if she hugged any of the guys? Then they would have to notify Akito and Hatori would have to erase Higurashi-san's memories. Probably her own as well.

Torhu could practically feel her eyes swirling as her thoughts ran in panicked circles.

Higurashi-san tilted her head and frowned with concern. "Why? Am I intruding? I'm sorry."

Torhu immediately shook her head and waved her hands in denial. "No! No, how rude of me, that wasn't how I meant! I only mean that while you seem like a very nice person and that you probably have talked to Shigure-san about all this, I'm not-"

"Toh-ru-kun~," Shigure-san sang as he trudged into the kitchen with the now empty cup of tea. "Kagome-san is a friend, you've no reason to doubt her intentions." He placed the cup on the bench, then pouted at Kagome. "But, Kagome-san, you better not be skimming me. My poor heart won't bear if you do."

Higurashi-san laughed and punched him playfully on the arm. "Your 'poor' heart need a huge dose of behavioral medicine. Jeez, the way you behave around girls I'm surprised no one has reported you yet."

Shigure-san gasped and placed his hand over his heart. "Kagome-san, you wound me! See this pretty face of mine? I would be jailbait in no time." He gave a shudder.

Tohru tilted her head. "Jail... bait?"

Both Higurashi-san and Shigure-san froze and smiled widely at Tohru. "A-ah, Honda-kun. That- you see-"

"We're home." The sound of Sohma-kun and Kyo-kun walking in and taking off their shoes made Tohru turn with a smile and greet them. She didn't notice the relieved sighs that left the two adults beside her.

"Oi, what will we have for-" Kyo-kun began, scratching his head as he came into the kitchen before he froze. "What the hell is a woman doing here?!" he exclaimed, pointing at Higurashi-san.

Sohma-kun came in soon after, wide-eyed as he too took in the unknown woman. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the cursed dog. "Shigure..."

Tohru shivered at the cold voice.

Shigure-san only laughed and greeted the two males.

-ooo-

"... and so Shigure-san offered me a place to live," Kagome finished sheepishly. After the two boys – Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun – had nearly pummeled poor Shigure-san to death Honda-kun had frantically gotten them to stop. How, Kagome could only imagine.

Her first impression of miss Honda was that she was an optimistic and incredibly sweet girl, though she could space out from time to time. At the moment she was pretty grateful for it – she didn't quite feel up to the task of explaining what 'jailbait' was.

Yuki-kun was handsome, or pretty she supposed. Though his hair was achromatic and he had violet eyes, the boy weirdly reminded her of Sesshomaru-sama with the way he almost seemed royal. A much warmer version of the dog-demon though.

Kyo-kun on the other hand had a brash handsomeness about him that reminded her of InuYasha. His orange hair and ruby eyes had thrown her off at first, but as soon as he opened his mouth her heart had giving a lurch at how alike her half-demon and this boy was.

Now they were seated in the dining room and Honda-kun had served tea and some sweets while they talked. Or, more like, Kagome talked while Shigure-san made some comments here and there.

"A~ah, yes," Shigure-san sighed while sipping his tea. "And she became so happy she even hugged me."

Kagome blushed furiously. "Shigure-san!" She exclaimed through clenched teeth as she glared at the now jubilantly laughing man. Looking away from him and instead fixing her stare at the roof she noticed that the three youngsters had frozen in differing poses of motion; Honda-kun when she was about to pour more tea to herself, Kyo-kun with a cookie dangling from his lips and Yuki-kun with his hand reached out to grab a sweet for himself. Kagome tilted her head, now more curious than embarrassed. "Um, Shigure-san?"

He was still laughing but had quieted down enough to wipe his eyes and regarded her with an amused smile. "Yes, Ka-go-me-chan~?"

Shigure-san was teasing her again. She blushed but refused to fall to the bait. Instead she simply nodded her head at the three youngsters. "Something wrong?" Kagome asked quietly, but it was loud enough to put them all in motion once more.

"Eh? Eh?! Something wrong? No, no, absolutely not! Ah-ha ha ha!" Honda-kun began pouring tea again while laughing nervously.

Kagome frowned and glanced at the boys, who were now behaving as though nothing had happened. They were far too tense for that to work on her though. She had worked with children for close to a year, before she was fired due to a shortage of money, so she knew some things about body language. That and she had had to deal with a foul-mouthed half-demon who only meant well.

She didn't call it on them though.

"So yeah. That's why I'm here now." Kagome bowed her head. "Thank you for having me."

Honda-san hurried to bow as well, while Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun offered small nods.

"Tohru-kun, maybe you can show Kagome-san where she will be staying?" Shigure-san suggested with a smile, putting his hands in the sleeves of his kimono.

"M-me?" Honda-san stammered, pointing at herself. At Shigure-san's affirmative nod and hum she gave a faint blush before smiling and raising to her feet. "O-okay. This way, Higurashi-san."

Kagome smiled at the girl. Really, she was so sweet. "Please call me Kagome, Honda-san." Kagome said as she too stood up.

The girl blushed and smiled. "Then, Kagome-san, it's this way."

-ooo-

"What is the meaning of this, Shigure?" Yuki whispered harshly as soon as the two girls were out of sight. They could hear Tohru-kun warn Kagome-san about a loose board in the stairs.

Shigure smiled serenely and took a bite of a cookie. "This must be Tohru-kun's baking; ah, it's simply enough for a man to die happy."

"That can be arranged," Kyo said darkly, cracking his knuckles.

"Now, now, Kyon-Kyon," Shigure pouted and waved the halfeaten cookie at the cursed cat," there's no need to get aggressive over nothing."

"Don't call me-!"

"Nothing, Shigure?" Yuki interrupted, earning a glare from the cat that the cursed rat promptly ignored. He narrowed his violet eyes at the dog. "Does she know about the zodiac then?"

Biting his tongue to keep from laughing, Shigure gave another goofy smile. "Nope~"

Kyo bristled and slammed his fist into the table, creating a small hole. "The hell, you bastard! She _hugged_ you!"

"Mah, mah, Kyon, must you always destroy my house? And your language! I'm happy the girls aren't anywhere near to hear your foulmouthedness; maybe we should clean your mouth with soap. Oh, but then poor Tohru-kun won't have anything to do laundry with, and it's simply too expensive to buy that much soap."

As the cat bristled and spat, Shigure swallowed the last of his cookie and gave the two boys a smug look. "Isn't the more important question this; if Kagome, a female, hugged me, a male of the zodiac, then how come she doesn't know _about_ the zodiac?"

He had to hide his smile behind his ever-present fan as the boys thought that one over. Yuki was the first one to widen his eyes and stare at Shigure as though the older male had grown a third eye on his forehead. "You didn't..?"

Shigure hummed lightly.

Kyo stared at the hole in the table. He clenched and unclenched his fists as he thought hard. "It's impossible. It _can't _be possible."

"Then color us, _her_, an impossibility," the dog said, flicking his fan closed and tucking it away in his kimono. In all his smugness, Shigure felt just as shocked and confused as the two before him. It should be an impossibility for a zodiac member _not_ to turn when embraced by someone of the opposite sex, but then again it should be impossible to turn into an animal.

If Shigure didn't turn when hugged by Kagome, did that mean she was some sort of cure, or immune in some way? The possibility of that thought made him both happy and afraid at the same time.

"No matter what or who she is," Shigure said with a light smile, but with a stern seriousness masking his features," Akito has to know that she's staying here."

Kyo grit his teeth at the mention of the "God's" name, but said nothing. He stood abruptly and stomped outside.

Yuki had lowered his eyes and seemed to be in deep thought. The rat didn't even notice when Kyo hurried past him on his way out. "Shigure," he said softly, almost in a whisper, when none of them could hear the cat anymore. "Do we really have to do that now?"

"Hm?" Shigure tilted his head and looked curiously over at Yuki. "Do you have something in mind? Perhaps love at first sight with the fair Kagome?"

Yuki didn't react to Shigure's wiggling eyebrows other than a slight twitch of his own in annoyance. "I'm just saying that before we tell Akito anything, we can investigate a little; who she is, where she is from and if there's more to her being immune to us. Maybe we're overreacting and you didn't really hug each other."

_No, there had definitely been some intimate movements involved._ Shigure raised his eyebrows but didn't comment as he took a sip of tea.

Yuki blinked, long eyelashes fluttering with the motion, and glanced at Shigure from the corner of his eye. "You know what I think about Akito's so called 'solutions'."

"Yes, and you know that I feel the same. Yet, I feel that it would be the most calmest solution to tell Akito now, before he finds out some other way." Shigure leaned back and tucked one hand into his kimono, the other still holding the teacup. "Akito tends to flare up when he isn't the first to know something, no matter how big of an issue it is."

Yuki tensed and looked down at his hands. Shigure felt a tendril of sadness for the boy slither through him at the sight, knowing that the rat was recalling just how Akito could become when under one of his fit of rages. He could still remember seeing the small gray haired child sitting in a window with hollow eyes and for all pretenses didn't seem to notice its own scraped hands and bruised throat.

That sad boy had changed though, and most of that was probably thanks to Tohru-kun. To think, that a girl could change a boy in less than six months.

"We wait a week," Shigure said. When Yuki looked up, nearly giving himself a whiplash, Shigure added, "A week, at most. Doesn't anything else happens and she remains ignorant to our curse, we may just so 'happen' to let her go."

A small, malnourished voice inside him was praying _Please, don't let anything happen._

-ooo-

"My room is just down the hall," Tohru-kun said and smiled brilliantly at Kagome who smiled back. "Your room will be the one just opposite of mine."

They stopped outside the room and Tohru-kun opened the door for Kagome to pass through.

It was by no means big; a large window was set close to the far corner with a little desk before it. On the desk stood a meek-looking lamp which seemed to be the only source of light, beside the window of course. There was no bed and no bedside-table, but there were heaps of books, newspapers and dust littering what little floor she could see. Spiderwebs had been combed in every nock and corner she could see and these were, as the floor, dusted with filth.

She loved the room at first sight.

"I'm so sorry, I haven't gotten to clean this one out just yet," Tohru-kun apologized hastily as she too took in the room. It gave Kagome the impression that the girl hadn't even been into this room yet.

"No sweat," Kagome said and clapped her hands together. "Actually, I like it like this." At Tohru-kun's dumbfounded expression she smiled. "My grandfather was crazy ancient stuff; protection trinkets, scrolls with spells, mummified hands and such. He always taught me, even though he probably knew I wasn't as interested as he was. But with time, I guess that his interest in history rubbed off on me."

"Mumm... ified..." Kagome twirled and looked over at the girl who had gone white somewhere during their conversation.

"Yes – you wouldn't _believe _half the stuff he used to get me." She shook her head. "Either way – I like things that are old, because they have a history. This room seems like... well, an old friend, if that makes any sense. It has a _lot_ of stories that are just waiting to be told."

If she closed her eyes she could almost remember, with close to perfect clarity, that day when she had fallen down the well the first time. Her grandfather had shown her a glass-imitation of the Shikon no Tama and had explained to her, again, its significance. How would she have known that that would be the beginning of her biggest adventure ever?

"Kagome-san?" Kagome blinked and returned to the room. Tohru-kun still stood in the doorway, looking over the clutter of things in the room. "You can go downstairs and eat some sweets while I clean this room out for you."

"No!" Kagome waved her hands at the girl in denial. "I can't do that! This is going to be my room so I should be the one to do it."

Tohru-kun seemed to grow even paler. "B-but you're a guest, Kagome-san, or, well, you're just moving in, what kind of hostess would I be if I can't even clean out a room for you, but then, um..!"

She was becoming so agitated and flustered over the thought that Kagome would clean by herself that it was becoming cute. "How about this?" Kagome said and put a hand on Tohru-kun's shoulder. "We clean it together."

The girl stilled with her hands to her head and looked at Kagome with wide eyes. Kagome noticed, to her own chagrin, that Tohru-kun was slightly taller than herself. Tohru-kun smiled widely and nodded. "Yes! I can go and get some cartons for us to put away the clutter."

"Then I can go find the vacuum." The girl was like a strange combination of Rin and Kohaku when she thought about it. She wondered what had happened to those two.

"Oh, it's downstairs, inside a closet in the washroom," Tohru-kun said before bounding off, almost slipping on top of the stairs before she caught herself with an eep.

_She definitely has some of Rin's genes in her, _Kagome thought. Giving the room another glance she followed Tohru-kun's path down the stairs.

"Let's see... washroom, washroom... ah, there." She hummed lightly as she entered the modest room, looked around and then found the closet, just as Tohru-kun had said she would. Rummaging through and discarding brooms and folded drying racks she found the vacuum and dragged it out.

After picking it up and winding the long hose around her throat she stepped – carefully and deliberately under the added weight – out of the room and went up the stairs.

Downstairs Tohru-kun was chatting with the Sohmas, either about where the cardboardboxes were or about something other mundane. After a shout of "You damn rat!" and stomping feet, she figured that poor Tohru-kun had been trying to keep peace downstairs. Why the girl had to stop them, Kagome didn't understand as she stomped on. Yuki-kun seemed levelheaded enough _not _ to start a fight and Shigure-san was an adult. Well, in years he was an adult.

As she was lost in thought she failed to notice the loose board Tohru-kun had warned her about not even ten minutes ago. She stepped right on it, her foot went through and she was sent flying. Too surprised by the sudden change of direction she didn't even eep before her forehead struck the highest step and a blinding pain exploaded behind her eyes.

"Ow!" Hissing and flailing for something to grab hold of, her misfortune continued; her foot was still stuck, but her flailing caused her body-weight to lean backwards and soon she was falling again. Bracing herself for the pain bound to come Kagome squeezed her eyes shut and prayed that it wouldn't hurt too badly.

There was a brief sensation of a chest, masculine, and then a poof of smoke, before she landed on her back at the floor; mostly unharmed, but in an uncomfortable position with her foot and forehead bleeding and her limbs in a wild arrange around her. And on her chest...

"Ow..." Kagome hissed as she slowly sat up, putting one hand to her forehead and the other behind to support herself. Already there was a throbbing sensation behind here forehead, that brought a stabbing pain in it's wake. Her foot didn't hurt just yet, but she could feel blood sluggishly running down her ankle.

"Kagome-san!" Tohru-kun's voice, approaching rapidly. "Are you alright?"

Kagome made to answer when she felt something under her hand. A rug? Because it wasn't the floorboards that she had expected to be there. Had she somehow deviated from seeing a mat there when she followed Tohru-kun?

No she hadn't.

Curious she looked at it, frowning in confusion when she saw it was a violet-colored shirt. Just beside it was a pair of khaki trousers that she was _sure_ she had seen somewhere before. But they had _definitely_ not been there when she went up with Tohru-kun, neither when she went back downstairs.

She stiffened. Not because of the clothes, or because of the now jabbing pain that was spreading through her skull.

Something was moving... _beneath her_.

"Eh?!" Kagome shot up faster than a cobra could bite, jumping up two stairsteps before landing on her bad foot and falling again, this time getting the sharp edge of a step into her hip. Holding her side and holding back a grunt she looked down, seeing Tohru-kun and Yuki-kun just rounding the corner.

And down there, laying like a rug, was an orange cat, his eyes swirling as he twitched from time to time.

* * *

**Just a heads up to those reading this fanfic: **I will be slow in updating this, since this is a fanfic I want to be careful and correct with. I will have at least one capter done when posting another one - meaning, I have another chapter ready to be released, but keeping it until I have a second. Like this: number 1 and 2 is done, I upload number 1, but keep number 2 until number 3 is COMPLETE.


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